Pacing frantically, JJ dialed, waited, dialed, waited, and dialed again. She was trying to get in contact with Mike. Trying and trying. Cursing, she muttered to herself, and tried again. Time was of the essence, and the idiot wasn't answering. She paced some more. And dialed again. And finally, there was an answer.

"What took you so long?!"

The conversation was brief, as it was almost time to abandon the blockade. JJ's friend Michelle was loading useful things into the back of a transit van, which, during their siege, they'd reinforced, as Michelle was an amateur welder, and conveniently carried her welding equipment around with her. She was busying herself with this, while Chanice, JJ's neighbour, strangely in London too, despite JJ hailing from the midlands, was looking out over the barricade, using some binoculars.

"Coast is clear, we should get a'kickin!"

JJ nodded at this and begun to help Michelle load the van with everything they'd need. It was time to move. JJ called Mike again. Her words were loud and disbelieving, as Mike had done something pretty stupid considering the circumstances. Suddenly, groans came from just over their barricade. Jumping to action, JJ, Michelle and Chanice all took up gun positions, blasting away at the undead like there was no tomorrow. Which to be perfectly honest, was looking rather likely, and more preferable to the tomorrow that involved the whole of the UK being infested by zombies, and therefore nuked beyond recognition.

Once the gunfire had stopped, and once their attackers were slain, JJ went inside the building they'd made into their fortress, and washed her face and hands thoroughly. Little did she know that may well be the last time she gets to do this. Walking back to the van, satisfied that she'd cleaned the gunpowder residue from herself, her phone rang. It was Mike, and his position had been compromised, partially by his own idiocy, but that was neither here nor there. He was to make his way into Liverpool and rescue his friend. This would actually be advantageous to JJ and co, as they didn't have a clue where Mike lived.

There was very little in the way of movement on the roads, as the cities had long since been abandoned by anyone with any sense. but JJ, Michelle and Chanice were on a mission. To Liverpool.. vaguely. They knew that was the general direction to head in, but had no clue of a specific location in which to find Mike and whoever might be aiding him. Looking at a map, Michelle pointed out the route up north to JJ, while Chanice kept watch through all the windows in case of potential attackers. They appeared to be safe for the moment. Their route was roughly traced, through Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Stoke and finally to Liverpool. The regular stops would ensure they had enough supplies to get there without succumbing to starvation or ammunition, or lack of fuel. Although what ammunition they could get from Milton Keynes was up for conjecture.

So, setting off, they made sure all the doors were locked on the van, which they'd reinforced with anything metal and large that they could find. It looked like a tank it did, and they were all very proud of the rolling fortress they'd created. The roads were clear, barring the odd zombie skulking around aimlessly, until they heard the van. Then they skulked in it's direction. But as soon as they did that, the van had already gone well past them. Before long they were outside London, and moving pretty quickly towards Milton Keynes. The roads were littered with abandoned vehicles, abandoned corpses, and lots of abandoned sweet wrappers. Either the undead had a sweet tooth, or someone had a fortress in the nearby area. This was no time to stop though, they had their supplies and enough fuel to get them a lot further than the Keynes, but it was a scheduled stop, and as we all know, plans work better if they're stuck to.

An hour had passed, and already they were getting bored. They weren't far from MK now, so this boredom wasn't due to last long, and they had to have their wits about them. Approaching the edge of the city, they noticed a distinct lack of anything. No cars, no people, and more importantly, no undead folk. It was an eerie silence, broken only by the engine of their reinforced van. But still, this stirred nothing. It was as if everyone, living or otherwise, had decided to completely abandon ol' Milts, leaving everything intact and untouched. It seemed too good to be true. But it wasn't. The three jumped out of the van once they'd neared a petrol station, and filled up the tank to the brim. Chanice also helped herself to lots of packets of crisps. She liked crisps, and how they make that satisfying "Craaaouupphh" noise when you try to eat them like they do on the advertisements on TV.

Still, no matter what noise they made, no matter how flagrantly irresponsible they were, they remained undisturbed and alive. This still made them nervous however, as they packed up all they needed, grabbing more in the less hasty circumstances than they'd first envisaged, and loaded up the van once more. JJ looked at Chanice, who was now somewhat covered in crumbs, following her loud crisp exercise, and the three of them got in the van, and proceeded towards to the northern exit of the town. Still with no hindrance. JJ was getting rather concerned about this, calling Mike to see if he was OK. It went straight to voicemail.

"The roads are clear, people have fled already, we'll be there by nightfall"

"That should do it. I'll do this regularly, so as to allow him to keep track of us, if he ever turns his damn phone on!"

JJ looked pretty annoyed because of this, but Chanice chimed in and said:

"Maybe his phone died?"

Again, JJ looked to her friend, initially not wanting to believe that Mike could do something as stupid as to charge his phone before an impending zombie outbreak, but she held her tongue as she realised that this was a reasonable and plausible thing to suggest. She nodded, and turned her attention to the road in front. They were nearing the edge of Milton Keynes, and already things were beginning to look more like they did in London, corpses lying about, the odd aimless zombie, vehicles abandoned, all that fun stuff. As they got to the city boundary, they could see a barricade had been set up, but subsequently broken through, and they slowly navigated the van through the previous point of attack. Despite the daylight, this area was pretty dark, so JJ put the van's lights on full beam, and drove cautiously through the rubble. Once again, there was nothing to stop them from getting through, but as they did, the atmosphere in the area had changed significantly. There were a lot more zombies than in the previous area. Almost sighing with relief, JJ accelerated, and the van sped away, heading for the motorway to take them to their next stop. Birmingham. Also consequently JJ's home.

Approaching the motorway, Michelle spotted something on the side of the road, it didn't look human, not did it look sub-human. It was black and white, and red all over. It was a penguin, covered in blood, but it didn't look like it'd been harmed in any way, despite the fact that it was dead. They stopped alongside it, and looked down out of the window at it. There was no movement from it. Being dead, that wasn't surprising. Well, it was a bit, considering the way dead things had been acting lately.

Leaving the dead penguin behind, the three got back into their van, luckily just in time. as over the barriers at the side of the road, some zombies were attempting to navigate this burden to get to their intended next meal. Some successful, some not so. One of them fell on it's face, which fell off as it landed. A few others managed to get over the barrier and started shuffling towards the van. Which rather inconveniently was having a bit of trouble starting. And causing a bit of a racket in it's spluttering struggle. Several attempts later, the van finally shuddered into life, but by then they were surrounded. JJ then grabbed a shotgun, and climbed onto the roof. Counting eight undead, she shouted down into the van to be provided with eight shells. Then she opened fire, in cold, calculated, accurate shots that annihilated the threat one by one. Jumping back down inside the van, she ordered Michelle to drive, and they did so, accelerating away from the scene, and off down the motorway, towards Birmingham. JJ's heart was racing, and she had some blood on her. not much, but a bit had splattered up onto her sleeve as she was separating zombie heads from zombie bodies. Searching for some wipes in the back of the van, she was tossed from side to side, as Michelle swerved to avoid abandoned vehicles and corpses in the road.

Finding what she needed, JJ began to wipe frantically at her sleeve, removing most of the blood from it. All that remained was a dark red patch, that seemed to be getting darker as she rubbed at it. Then, strangely, because I doubt this would happen in a normal situation, the sleeve began to dissolve. Quickly, JJ removed the jacket, watching it sizzle, bubble, then dissolve into nothing on the floor of the van. All that was left was a strangle little black char mark. Looking puzzled, JJ called Chanice to come and look at it, who, randomly begun blaming it all on witchcraft. They jolted from left to right, then left again, as once again, Michelle took evasive action to avoid a car that looked as if it had skidded to a halt suddenly. This car was the epitome of the struggle they faced. Suddenly halted, door left wide open, blood splattered over a smashed windscreen, no sign of the owner, yet the keys were still in the ignition. A trail of dried blood led off to a wooded area beyond the road. Back to the three, and they passed under a sign informing them that they were thirty miles from Birmingham. Luckily this wouldn't take too long as there was nobody left to enforce any speed limits.

JJ and Chanice returned to their seats, putting on their seatbelts, almost with relieved looks on their faces that they weren't being jolted about by Michelle's erratic yet necessary driving. It was unclear as to whether Michelle even had a license, but she seemed to be handling this van perfectly fine, all barring the odd shuddery gear change. The road seemed to clear a little as they got closer to Birmingham, and almost simultaneously, the three of them remembered the Spaghetti Junction, and bowed their heads as though in a prayer to prevent them getting lost in the labyrinth of roads. Another sign passed, and they were twenty miles from the centre of Birmingham. Suddenly, in the distance, JJ spots something. Someone. Moving too quickly to be a zombie. Michelle beeped the horn on the van, catching the runner's attention. Screeching to a halt, they stopped just by this person.

"Please!! They're trying to eat me! Help me!"

The person was a living female girl person, and she looked at the height of fear.

"Get in, and be quick about it!"

JJ's response was short and sharp, but there were undead closing on their position, and they had to move fast. The girl got into the side door of the van, sliding it shut as quickly as her tiring arms could slide it. Michelle then put her foot down again, causing the girl to fall to the floor.

"Are you ok? Are you bitten?"

Chanice was the first to show concern for the girl.

"I'm fine, I feel like I've been running for days now... and no, I've not been bitten"

The girls accent was an American one. What an American girl was doing twenty miles south of Birmingham is anybody's guess, but the fact of the matter was that she was there, and she had been saved.

The roads approaching Birmingham were much more crowded than those leading to Milton Keynes, not with traffic, but with undead. There were literally hundreds of them, all heading into the city. It was as though someone was baking a giant people pie, and the smell was wafting over them, drawing them to the centre. There was no pie, however they seemed intent on shuffling towards the centre. The four survivors plowed on, knocking zombie after zombie over, the ride becoming considerably more bumpy as they went on. As they got closer to the city, there seemed to be pockets of undead roaming around as though they owned the place, which, at this time, they technically did, with a fierce and deadly grasp. Unbeknownst to them of course, being dead. On they went, searching for anywhere that looked like they could hole up in for a while as they re-stocked and refueled. However, this was to be an optimistic hope, as the van had taken an awful battering, there was no way it was going to make it to Liverpool. They'd decided to search for a new vehicle while the van still had fuel to.

Their search wasn't to be a long one, as they happened to find a car dealership, with high fences. The gates were open, and the padlock was still hanging in it, as though the previous custodian of the place was attempting to fortify, but got caught by zombies in trying to lock the gate. The evidence of this was clear, as his corpse lay just inside the gate, where he'd attempted to crawl to safety. Driving in, JJ and Chanice jumped out of the van, took a gate each, and closed it, locking it in the process. Michelle and Maggie then jumped out, and ran to the back of the van, arming themselves with guns, in case of any nasty surprises awaiting them in the dealership office. They were surrounded by lots of impractical cars, with small storage areas, however, as they approached the office, they saw the section which seemed to deal in estate cars, which would be more ideal for their current needs. JJ jumped in the van, and drove it to this area, beginning to unload the remainder of their equipment. Michelle and Maggie approached the office, the door of which was open, but it was dark inside. Looking back to Chanice, Michelle made some hand signals (one which meant 'throw' and another which meant 'boom') and Chanice came over, somewhat cautiously, with some grenades. Because they were VERY prepared. And it helps me with the plot. Taking the pin from one, and throwing it into the office, the three of them retreated a bit, and waited for the explosion. Which happened, obviously.

An arm flew out of the window. It was a good idea to use explosives. They ran to the office, and peered inside. Fire from the explosion lit up the room, and showed that there was no more danger, other than the fire itself. JJ joined them at this point, reaching for the light switch as she entered, a few steps behind the others. Nothing happened. Either the grenade had destroyed the lighting in the room, or the entire city was out of juice. Either way, JJ had brought a torch. Shining it around, she saw that the explosion had blown the doors off of a safe box containing lots of car keys. Grabbing as many as they could, they made their way to the cars outside, and started trying the keys on them. Once they had a few matches, they made a choice of car, and decided to use the others as strength for their current barricade. They stocked up their chosen car, and filled it with fuel using the pump that the dealership had, and prepared to leave for their next city stop, Manchester. Opening the gate once they'd sorted a gap in their car barricade, they sped off towards the northern reaches of Birmingham, only to find a massive military looking blockade in their way. It was at this moment, JJ decided to send a text message to Mike again.

"Theres a blockage near Birmingham, searching for a different route now"

With this, they reversed, and headed for the western exit, and aimed to curve their route up towards Liverpool, thus avoiding the need to stop in Manchester altogether. They decided that Stoke would be a good plan B, and came up with a quick line on a map tracing their new route.

Approaching the western exit road, it was clear that this route hadn't been deemed worthy enough to block off, as there was clear road to the countryside. Accelerating, they push on, as the scenery soon changed from concrete metropolis to idyllic countryside.. with a side order of corpse. JJ had a quick look at the map, and was able to determine how far they had to travel to get to Stoke. Luckily, it wasn't too far, and if they didn't encounter any trouble, they'd be there within the hour. Unfortunately, they'd come across a lot of undead, meandering seemingly towards them. They had no choice. They had to plow through.

"Brace yourselves, this is gonna get ugly!"

JJ's words, seemed broken, as though she was worried. Which she had every right to be, as they were about to attempt to plow through zombies in an estate. Not the van which had served them so well as a battering ram previously, but an estate. At least it had a big boot. It was clear that they'd have to clear five waves to be free of the moving blockades. Almost as though it was a computer game or something. But it wasn't. Which at this moment, was a shame. Estate cars weren't known for their zombie mowing prowess. Nevertheless, they drove on regardless. First wave, and they were lucky to hit the thinnest part of it, only crashing through three and a half zombies. One wasn't all there, missing half a torso, it's head hanging on by the spinal cord. Second wave. This one wasn't anything like the first, being a larger crowd, approximately eighty in total. On they plowed, body parts flying all over the place. The car was taking a battering, On the plus side, it seemed like waves two, three and four had merged into one massive tsunami of corpses, which was actually a major relief, as they were nearly reaching it's end. The last wave seemed tiny in comparison, and they hit just two before they were clear. There was a problem though, The car was almost falling to pieces as they were driving. Still, they didn't stop until they were well clear of the threats.

They were near Stoke now, but the car could go no further. Simultaneously, the four got out, and gathered up all the items they could carry from the rather spacious car boot.

"We'll have to walk from here. I'll text Mike to let him know we're delayed"

Maggie looked at JJ as she asked, tilting her head slightly, as though this was a completely obvious thing to do.

"Alright, fine, but who put you in charge?""No-one, I just thought.. friendly voices, ya know?""Yeah, alright.."

So JJ made the call.

"You called! Are you ok?""Yes, we're fine, we've found a safe place, but there's no food or water, we'll have to move soon.""Good, we've found a van, and we're just near Manchester now, we'll be as quick as we can""OK, we'll try to get to the hotel as quick as possible.""Right OK. Be careful Mike.""You too."

That they had found a safe place was a lie, but she didn't want Mike to think they were standing out in the open and quite blatantly making a phonecall when they could potentially get attacked at any moment. She also didn't want to tell him that they'd had to change their route, grasping onto the hope that Mike's geography wasn't all that, and hoping he didn't know the distance between Stoke and Manchester.

JJ, Maggie, Chanice and Michelle all started taking nervous yet quick steps towards Stoke. It was only a few miles away, so they weren't concerned that it would take that long. Their immediate worry was the horde of zombies about a mile back, which they'd recently ploughed through in their estate car, which they'd acquired from Birmingham. This car was now a wreck because of previously mentioned plow action, so the four were left with no option but to walk. Something they didn't expect. As it happened, they'd encounter literally no vehicles on the way in to Stoke, but that was hardly surprising, they were lucky to find any vehicles at all given the current crisis. Onwards they trudged, constantly keeping an eye out for potential threats. They had however, remained quiet enough to escape the notice of any threat, undead or otherwise. Soon enough, countryside began to change to more built-up surroundings, which in turn built up into city centre. They'd made it to Stoke. Which again, was incredibly quiet. Cliche dictates that it's too quiet. Unfortunately, cliche was correct this time around.

It was at this point that Maggie begun to ask JJ, quietly, about who they were going to rescue.

"I knew a guy called Mike, from Liverpool...""There are probably many Mikes from Liverpool""I know.. but this one seems familiar.. Did you meet him on the internet?""I did yeah, we've never actually met.. I guess you could say that this'll be our first meeting with him, should we get there."

Maggie seemed a little stunned by this, she still wasn't entirely sure that this was the same Mike, but a lot of the signs pointed to him being the same one she knew a few years ago.

"We.. loved each other.. even though we were so far away from each other. He was always plotting ways to try to fly over and see me, but we could never afford it."

JJ nodded, but said nothing to that. She knew Mike very well, and from the recesses of her memory, he had mentioned to her an American girl by the name of Maggie.

"I have a feeling he might be..""Might be what?""The one you spoke to. The one you loved.""Really? How do you know?""Just a feeling I guess."

All this time, they'd been walking and talking, and hadn't notice Michelle and Chanice had gone. They turned around sharply, and heard noises in the distance. JJ and Maggie both ran towards the noises, which, as they got nearer, turned into screams. Michelle had been bitten, and was still being bitten, by a zombie. Her screams were blood curdling, and she cried out for help. Chanice was lying on the floor. She'd been bitten too. It was only a matter of time before they turned.

"JJ what do we do? We can't just leave them to become one of.. those.. things!""I don't know! I.. don't.. know.."

JJ's voice trailed off.. she'd just been dealt a real emotional hit. Her two close friends and able assistants in her attempt to reach Mike and Lorna had been attacked and killed. Suddenly, Chanice begun to move. Slowly rising to her feet, with a stumble, she turned around. This was not Chanice anymore.

"JJ? What do we do?" JJ?? JJ!!!"

Maggie couldn't get a response from her, which meant she'd have to kill three zombies by herself. Luckily, the two were pretty well armed, so a well-aimed shotgun blast took care of the first zombie. As for JJ's friends, Maggie tried to be as humane as possible, aiming with a rifle and trying to shoot them both as cleanly as she could. She managed it, and while she was in tears, her emotions were nothing compared to that of JJ at this current moment. She went over to try to console her.

JJ and Maggie had been running for some time now, believing that they'd distanced themselves from the scene that had unfolded in front of their eyes, involving their friends. They'd gone into Stoke knowing that they weren't all that far from Liverpool now. They needed a new car, and they needed it fast. They didn't even know if Mike was still alive. They headed towards an area that looked like an industrial estate, full of wide open spaces and big warehouses. Surely there had to be a vehicle around here. The last thing people think during zombie outbreaks are usually something like "Oh I know, there'll be a van at the industrial estate I can use if I can break through the gates and steal it possibly without the keys, knowledge of hot-wiring, or even knowledge of driving!" No. Blind panic doesn't allow for such lengthy thought process. Nonetheless, JJ and Maggie pressed on. They'd slowed to a walking pace, as they were pretty sure they couldn't be caught by their fallen comrades. Incidentally they didn't shoot them, JJ couldn't bring herself to shoot the ones who helped her get this far. So they decided to run.

Their search took them to a warehouse with a large docking bay. And a sixteen-wheel truck. Victory. Luckily if they couldn't find the keys, JJ had the know how to hot-wire it. They approached it with the usual caution you'd expect in situations like these, and quickly surveyed their entire surroundings, leading them to the cabin of the truck. This is where there'd predictably be a zombie waiting to seemingly ambush them, although the prospect of a zombie actually having ambush on it's mind was not even slightly likely, given that the average zombie is brain dead. In a pincer movement, Maggie opened one door and stepped back, and JJ opened the other in the same manner. Nothing happened. Not even groaning. Without thinking, Maggie threw herself up into the cabin, which was very risky to say the least, JJ with a completely gobsmacked look on her face.

"There's nobody in here!"

JJ climbed in and shut the door. Maggie shut the other, and they looked around for the keys. They were in the ignition. JJ smiled and turned the key, and the truck roared into life.

"Liverpool! Here we come!"

Maggie bounced in her seat while she said this, and looked genuinely relieved and happy. As the truck shuddered into life, the fuel gauge went up and up, and told JJ that they had a full tank. It was more than enough to get them to Liverpool. So off they went. They headed towards the motorway, with little to no obstruction.

An hour had passed and they entered Merseyside. JJ's phone rang.

"Hey, We're camped out in the hotel, top floor, room 202.""Ok, we're just on Merseyside now. How did you get in?""Through the Chinese restaurant. There's a door at the back. We're barricaded in here, so knock."

The call ended, and JJ nodded to herself as though she was confirming the information she'd just received in her head.

It seemed like an age ago that they were in London, and Chanice and Michelle were still with them, but it was the same morning. So much had happened that JJ could barely believe she'd actually made it right the way across the country to get to Mike. But they weren't quite there yet. They had to negotiate all the abandoned vehicles and the zombies to get to the hotel where Mike was barricaded. Still, they were in a large truck, so it wasn't going to be too much of a challenge, as long as they didn't hit too many cars. The sign read "Welcome to Liverpool". Rather cliché were the bloody handprints at the bottom of it. cliché but true. There weren't many cars abandoned as they headed into the city, not enough to warrant caution, but the number of zombies was alarming. They were approaching the cathedral known as "Paddy's Wigwam" where people had tried to go to for shelter. there were many corpses on the concrete steps leading to it's heavily locked entrance, from the outside you could see that they'd thrown everything they could fit in front of the doors to stop people from entering. Maggie couldn't help but stare at the devastation outside, and looked scared. JJ's eyes remained fixed on the road. They were so close now. As they went around the corner, they could see the hotel with the chinese restaurant.

"There it is! They're in there!" "I know. I'll get us as close in as I can, then we've got to make a run for it inside, and head for the stairs"

JJ seemed to already have their plan thought out. She drove quickly towards the entrance, bringing the truck as close as she could to the door. She shut the engine off, and quickly their task became apparent, The groaning from the undead was loud. Scarily loud. Liverpool was very badly infected. Maggie opened the door, and they ran inside. Sprinting towards the kitchen, they jumped over a zombie that had been sliced into pieces, and up through a door which they closed behind them. They ran up the stairs, into the store room, which had been ransacked, and through into the lobby. JJ looked around for some stairs, but Maggie noticed that the light was still on the lift. She pressed the button, and the lift begun to make noise.

"JJ!! The lift works!" She whisper-shouted.JJ came over and waited with her, smiling a little. As the lift opened, they got in, and pressed the button for the top floor. They arrived at the top floor, it seemed to take a little while, and got out, looking for room 202. It didn't take them too long to find it. JJ knocked on the door."Mike! We're here! It's me, JJ!"She waited a few seconds, but the response came.